Moroccan Woman’s Nightmare: Detained at French Airport Despite Legal Status

On June 25, 2025, Lelia* went to Morocco, armed with her expired residence permit and the receipt issued by the prefecture of Hauts-de-Seine, valid until September 17. But her return to Roissy on July 9 turned into a nightmare. The 29-year-old Moroccan woman was arrested and then placed in the waiting area of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport on the grounds that she was the subject of a refusal to renew her residence permit, an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) and a ban on returning to French territory (IRTF) until... June 2065.

The young Moroccan woman spent six days in the waiting area (ZA) which she described as a "disguised prison". "We are deprived of freedom, the doors are electrified, the windows do not open," she testified to Hespress, denouncing the dirt, the bedbugs, the mixed toilets and showers, and the "insufficient" food. In addition to the arbitrary imprisonment, Leila* also claimed that she was the victim of "daily" sexual harassment from other detainees. "They imposed humiliating remarks on me, like ’I want to have children with you’ or ’You’re beautiful even when you cry’".

She adds: "When I went to the toilet in the morning, five men stared at me, I felt like a sexual object." A harassment that she says she reported to the police and the Red Cross teams on site, "but they left her alone with that". And to continue: "What I experienced was an incomprehensible reality, or rather an immeasurable nightmare. It was brutal, unfair and deeply humiliating. I was and still am in total incomprehension, because I have always been in order and I had a valid receipt".

Her lawyer Samy Djemaoun made an "urgent" report to the Bobigny public prosecutor, as well as to the prefecture of Hauts-de-Seine, on July 13. He demanded "the recording of her complaint and a request for a hearing as soon as possible". Six days after her arrest, Lelia regained her freedom. She is followed by a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

An administrative paradox is at the origin of the problems the young Moroccan woman encountered. While the prefecture had summoned her on June 17 for a "title handover", the OQTF targeting her, dated June 4, was precisely notified to her on the same day. On the prefecture’s side, it is specified that a registered letter was sent to the young woman on June 16, but Leila claims to have "received nothing from the post office".

The legal action was successful. On July 15, the Paris Court of Appeal finally ruled in favor of the young woman. According to her, Leila’s continued detention in the waiting area "constitutes a disproportionate infringement of the rights of the person concerned".

*First name modified